Given that we at Randolph Sterling are looking for a few new employees ourselves, I thought that perhaps I would give our potential applicants an early Christmas gift (or a belated one, depending on when they read this) of my thoughts when it comes to interviewing.

When I interview someone, I expect them to have some understanding of what we do, but I also want them to ask questions so they can better understand what we do. If you’ve done your research and act like you know everything there is to know about us, you will definitely turn me off. Heck, I started the company and like to think I have my hand in most of what we do and I don’t even know everything there is to know!

I look for people who are interviewing me as much as I interview them. My biggest problem is being in sales, my job is to develop relationships for a living. It is tough sometimes to sit back and let someone develop a relationship with me, but I want to see how they build rapport. I also want them asking me questions and really listening to the answers. Too many people ask questions to sound prepared but don’t really listen to the answers; then get into the job and really don’t have a feel if it is actually a good fit for them.

Finally, I hate being late and hate when other people are late. If you are 10 minutes late for an interview, you will wait 15 for me to come out to talk to you. Of course, things happen beyond our control. I interviewed a candidate for a sales position in our Raleigh office a few weeks ago. He had a sales meeting that ran a little long so he called me to say his GPS showed that he would be arriving about 5 minutes late so he wanted to apologize for making me wait for him. I told him to take his time and that I appreciated his respect in letting me know he was going to be a bit late. What I didn’t tell him was that by doing that, he started out head and shoulders above the other candidates before we had even met.

One Response to “First Impressions: You Only Get One”

I spoke to a Vistage group last week and one of the members had read that blog post. He said, “I will not hire someone if they do not ask me highly intelligent questions and show a passion for wanting to work inside my business.”

Unfortunately it’s rampant and too many applicants are not interviewing their potential bosses and colleagues.